Join Program Committee’s Monthly Call Series: First Tuesdays

By Teresa Castillo (Fresno Branch) and Barbara Nielsen (San Francisco Branch)
Program Committee Chairs

Invitation from Your Program Committee: Our 2018 Call Series is the first Tuesday of each month.

Calling each branch to send a rep to join our Program Committee Calls and reps from all of our Issues Committees to plan and coordinate actions together and in solidarity!

Do you know about our #MovetheMoney campaign via peacewomen.org? Find out more at their website–it dovetails nicely with our work around WILPF and the Poor People’s Campaign this spring!

There is much to report:

• The Program Committee has welcomed many branches to our meetings so far this year. Looking forward to our June call and participation from even more branches! We had many branches represented on our March call in addition to our issues committees and we are seeking a representative from as many branches and groups as possible to join in our Program Committee monthly call series.
• In our calls, we share first-hand what our branches and our issues committees are doing and how our activism relates throughout the section. We learned a lot through shared information and questions on national and local activities and actions. We are hoping to increase info sharing and coordination with all branches, particularly those having issues committees that parallel our national issues committees. We are looking for ways to expand our issues committees’ interactions with branches and groups around the national Solidarity Events that are being promoted via the One WILPF calls team.
• Several of our issues committees are making connections around the WILPF-based activism with the Poor People’s Campaign days of action that many branches will being engaged in. The PPC’s third week, around Memorial Day, will focus on Veterans and Militarism and our DISARM-End Wars issues committee members are working on actions then, too. We would like to facilitate sharing of resources that could be helpful throughout the section. Some other examples: ANA’s DC Days in May; the WILPF-US Solidarity Events relative to the August Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorative ceremonies and actions; and are you planning on attending the Triennial International Congress in Accra, Ghana, 8/20-8/22?
• BRANCHES FACEBOOK PAGES: We are still seeking information from each branch or geographic region with a Facebook page and who in the branch/ region/ group is the contact person. So far, we know of these besides the US Section Facebook page: Boston, Cape Cod, Pittsburgh, Greater Philadelphia, Essex County (NJ), NY Metro, Houston, Rockport Monthly Meeting, St. Louis, Madison, Des Moines, Portland, Sacramento, San Jose, Peninsula/Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, Monterey County, Fresno, East Bay-San Francisco, Utah. What branches are we missing? Please let us know–contact Barbara Nielsen (see below)!

Our goal is to have all branches represented on our monthly committee meetings so that we can exchange information and overcome the “silo” phenomenon of working parallel but not in conjunction with each other – and then we can work on outreach to our at‑large members for your activism in your communities! This plan moves us forward in WILPF membership capacity-building and effective activism in our communities.

For further information, contact the chairs:
Teresa Castillo (taca_03@ymail.com); Barbara Nielsen (bln.sf.ca@gmail.com)